The  Art  of 
Business  Getting 

By  the  Experts 

OF 

The  Business  Man's  Magazine 
and  The  Book-Keeper 


PUBLISHED  BY 

The  Book-Keeper  Publishing  Co.,  Ltd. 

DETROIT,  MICH.,  U.  S.  A. 


.  "50.  It 


Entered  According  to  Act  of  Congress 
in  the  year  1904,  by 

THE  BOOK-KEEPER  PUBLISHING  CO.,  Lm 

DETROIT,  MICHIGAN 

in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress, 

All  rights  reserved. 


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The  Art  of  Business  Getting 

An  Essay  on  the  Elements  of  Successsful  Selling 

BUSINESS  consists  of  the  operations  of  buying  and 
selling.  Sometimes  the  article  or  articles  pur¬ 
chased  are  sold  in  just  the  same  form  as  that  in 
which  they  are  received.  Sometimes  the  form  is  changed 
by  manufacture.  Sometimes  possession  is  gained  by  pay¬ 
ment  of  money,  sometimes  by  barter,  and  sometimes  by 
personal  effort.  In  any  case,  it  is  a  purchase  just  the 
same. 

To  succeed  in  business,  we  must  make  a  profit;  that  is, 
we  must  get  for  our  wares  more  than  we  paid  for  them. 
Very  often  one  in  business  must  choose  between  a  large 
volume  of  business  at  a  small  margin  of  profit,  and  a 
small  volume  of  business  at  a  large  margin  of  profit. 
Circumstances  surrounding  each  individual  case  must  de¬ 
termine  the  decision  in  regard  to  your  course  in  this  con¬ 
nection. 

The  art  of  getting  business  may  be  easily  divided  into 
two  parts — business  getting  as  the  first  part,  and  keeping 
it  as  the  second.  It  will  be  conceded  that  it  ought — all 
things  else  being  equal — to  be  easier  to  sell  goods  to  an 
old  customer  than  to  one  who  has  had  no  dealings  with 
you  or  your  concern.  When  you  strike  a  case  where  it 
is  not  easier,  you  may  confidently  look  for  the  reason  in 
the  fact  that  the  seller  did  not  know  how  to  keep  his 
trade  when  he  had  it. 


118230 


4 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


Getting  Business. 

Success  in  business  demands  these  four  things  first  as 
requisites : 

A  good  buyer. 

A  good  market 

A  good  article  to  sell. 

A  good  salesman  (or  saleswoman). 

No  matter  whether  the  business  be  a  large  or  small 
one;  no  matter  where  its  location;  no  matter  what  the 
nature  of  the  merchandise  dealt  in,  these  four  points  are 
of  the  utmost  importance. 

A  Good  Buyer. 

An  adage,  so  old  as  to  command  respect  for  its  age  at 
least,  tells  us  that  “goods  well  bought  are  half  sold.”  Per¬ 
haps  this  is  a  little  overdrawn,  but  it  holds,  nevertheless, 
a  great  deal  of  truth.  Competition  is  with  us  and  must 
be  reckoned  with.  We  hear  much  of  the  monopoly.  Few 
of  us  have  any  knowledge  of  a  real  monopoly.  When  a 
seeming  monopoly  exists  it  will  usually  be  found  that  it 
does  exist  simply  because  the  so-called  monopolist  has 
placed  himself  in  a  position  to  furnish  more  or  better 
goods,  in  a  certain  line,  for  a  given  amount  of  money 
than  others  in  the  same  line.  Usually  he  does  this 
through  superior  facilities  gained  by  superior  foresight. 
There  are  “just  as  good  fish  in  the  sea  as  ever  were 
caught,”  and  just  as  great  are  the  opportunities  of  today 
as  those  of  yesterday  or  yester-year. 

Competition  is  still  with  us.  An  old  warrior  once  said 
that  superior  generalship  consisted  of  “gittin’  thar  fustest 
with  the  mostest  men.”  The  same  thing  is  true  in  busi¬ 
ness.  You  must  get  there  first.  The  first  strawberries 
on  the  market  bring  fancy  prices.  The  novelties  of  this 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


5 


year  sell  at  a  profit  of  50  per  cent.  Next  year  they  are 
staples  at  a  profit  of  five  per  cent.  Next  year  or  next 
month  (or  perhaps  tomorrow)  they  are  “back  numbers,, 
at  a  profit  of  “minus  one  hundred,”  more  or  less.  Who 
wants  Christmas  trees  on  the  Fourth  of  July?  Here  is 
where  the  good  buyer  comes  in.  The  good  buyer  may  be 
a  man  or  woman,  but  in  either  case  the  qualities  are  the 
same.  We’ll  call  the  buyer  “he”  for  the  sake  of  con¬ 
venience.  (Why  don’t  someone  invent  a  personal  pro¬ 
noun  which  can  be  used  in  cases  like  this.  We  can’t 
call  our  buyer  “it.”) 

The  good  buyer  gets  there  first  with  seasonable  goods, 
just  on  time  (too  early  is  as  bad  as  too  late).  When  our 
competitor  gets  new  goods  which  take  our  trade  away 
from  us,  who  is  to  blame?  The  buyer.  Who’s  to  blame 
when  the  season  ends  and  finds  us  with  an  over-supply? 
The  buyer.  It  is  hard  to  say  who  is  the  most  important 
man  in  the  business,  but  when  the  final  analysis  of  the 
most  important  position  is  made  the  buyer  will  be  “there 
or  thereabouts,”  as  the  sailors  say.  Now,  don’t  make  a 
mistake.  Don’t  say  that  your  business  is  too  small  to 
have  these  facts  apply.  Don’t  say  that  they  do  not  apply 
just  because  you  are  buyer  and  salesman,  too.  They  do 
apply  just  the  same.  The  good  buyer  will  have  an  in¬ 
telligent  appreciation  of  the  possibilities  of  every  article 
he  purchases.  If  he  does  not  he  is  not  a  good  buyer. 

You  can  probably  find  many  a  grocer  who  cannot  tell 
you  whether  the  figs  he  sells  you  come  from  Italy  or 
Turkey — and  you  can  bet  he’s  not  much  of  a  success, 
either.  He  never  got  anywhere  first.  Where  your  goods 
come  from;  when  they  first  come  on  the  market;  when 
the  best  time  is  to  buy,  are  important  points  which  the 


6 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


good  buyer  appreciates  and  does  not  overlook.  The  good 
buyer  always  has  time  to  listen  to  a  man  who  has  some¬ 
thing  to  sell.  If  the  salesman  has  more  knowledge  of 
the  goods  than  the  good  buyer  has,  the  buyer  has  a 
chance  to  learn  something.  A  chance  to  learn  something 
should  not  be  lightly  passed  by.  Surplus  information  is 
a  valuable  asset  and  is  easy  to  carry  around.  It  costs 
nothing  for  storage  or  insurance  and  is  easily  turned 
into  money. 

The  good  buyer  cannot  know  it  all — he  won’t  try.  This 
being  the  case,  he  will  frequently  be  compelled  to  buy 
something  which  he  knows  nothing  about.  His  best  plan 
in  a  case  of  this  kind  is  to  simply  confess  ignorance.  Let 
him  go  to  some  source  of  supply  in  which  he  has  confi¬ 
dence  and  simply  say:  “I  want  so  much — don’t  know 
anything  about  ruling  values,  but  I  want  it  at  the  right 
price.” 

It’s  ten  chances  to  one  that  he’ll  get  it  at  the  right  price. 
If  he  don’t  he’ll  find  it  out  later.  Then  it’s  time  to  have 
an  accounting  with  the  one  who  sold  it — and  incidentally 
sold  him  at  the  same  time.  It  don’t  pay  for  the  seller 
to  take  advantage  in  this  way,  and  as  a  consequence  he 
seldom  does.  It  pays  to  be  smart,  but  it  never  pays  to  be 
too  smart. 

The  good  buyer  will  make  mistakes — everybody  does. 
When  he  makes  a  mistake  and  buys  the  wrong  goods  let 
him  “own  up” — to  the  management  if  he  is  responsible 
to  a  manager  or  to  himself  if  he  is  “his  own  boss.”  Next 
let  him  make  arrangements  to  dispose  of  the  unseason¬ 
able,  otherwise  slow  selling  article  at  once.  Once  in  a 
while  it  may  pay  to  hang  on  in  hopes  that  circumstances 
will  change,  but  usually  it  will  not  pay.  If  “goods  well 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


7 


bought  are  half  sold,”  then  goods  badly  bought  are  better 
sold  at  once — and  at  almost  any  price. 

A  Good  Market. 

In  some  lines  of  business  you  must  go  where  your 
market  is.  In  others  you  must  bring  your  market  to  you. 
All  we  need  to  know  is  that  sales  are  possible  to  a  suffi¬ 
cient  amount  to  make  the  business  profitable.  That  point 
settled,  it  is  “up  to”  the  salesman  or  sales  manager  to 
make  the  sales.  One  thing  should  be  settled  at  once: 
Is  our  location  the  correct  one  or  not?  If  not,  the  sooner 
we  change  it,  the  better.  Many  a  failure  has  been 
changed  to  success  by  a  judicious  change  of  location  at 
just  the  right  time. 

A  Good  Article  to  Sell. 

Being  in  business,  you  must  perforce  sell  the  line  of 
goods  commonly  sold  in  that  line  of  trade.  To  sell  a  good 
article  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  you  must  sell  the 
best  or  highest  priced  article  in  any  given  line.  On  the 
contrary,  it  may  mean  the  cheapest.  You  would  not  do 
much  business  trying  to  sell  diamonds  or  automobiles  to 
a  community  of  day  laborers.  A  “good  article”  means 
just  what  your  trade  wants  at  a  price  which  they  are 
able  and  willing  to  pay.  Do  not  make  the  mistake  of 
supposing  that  people  in  moderate  circumstances  will  not 
pay  a  fair  price  for  a  good  article.  They  will.  Some¬ 
times  you  must  educate  them  into  the  idea  that  they  want 
the  good  article  and  can  afford  it,  but  it  will  pay  you  to 
play  the  part  of  educator  in  this  direction  if  you  are  suc¬ 
cessful.  That  part  of  the  business  lies  with  the  salesman. 
A  Good  Salesman. 

All  the  foregoing  is  but  a  prelude  to  the  real  art  of  get¬ 
ting  business,  but  a  very  necessary  prelude,  nevertheless. 


8 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


Selling  goods  is  simply  the  art  of  finding  out  what  your 
customer  wants  and  then  supplying  the  want.  Some 
people  have  the  art  or  knack  of  finding  out  what  is 
wanted  before  the  customer  finds  it  out  himself — such 
people  are  always  successful.  Of  course  it  won’t  do  to 
force  your  goods  upon  a  customer.  Even  if  you  can  suc¬ 
ceed  in  making  a  sale  you  won’t  make  a  customer — and 
we  cannot  consider  any  sale  a  success  which  does  not 
make  it  easier  to  sell  the  same  thing  a  second  time,  or 
at  least,  to  sell  to  the  same  customer  another  time. 

Selling  goods  must  necessarily  be  done  in  one  of  two 
ways — either  by  personal  contact  or  through  correspond¬ 
ence.  These  two  plans  have  many  variations.  Selling 
goods  by  personal  contact  runs  all  the  way  from  the 
“pack  peddler”  to  the  big  jobbing  house  with  its  scores 
and  perhaps  hundreds  of  salesmen.  The  proposition  is 
much  the  same  in  either  case.  We  will  leave  out  of  con¬ 
sideration  the  staple  trade  so  far  as  regular  lines  are  con¬ 
cerned.  When  the  article  sold  is  so  commonly  used  that 
the  buyer  can  take  his  choice  of  a  score  of  possible 
sources  of  supply,  it  becomes  simply  a  question  of  price,, 
When  the  price  is  uniform  in  all  available  markets — and 
it  very  frequently  is  nowadays — friendship  often  deter¬ 
mines  where  the  order  shall  go.  Perhaps  it  would  be 
nearer  right  to  say  “usually.”  We  used  to  hear  it  said 
that  “there  is  no  friendship  in  business.”  That  is  a  plain, 
unvarnished  lie — and  a  very  silly  one.  Any  old  salesman 
will  deny  it  and  can  refute  it  in  a  minute.  For  the  sake 
of  convenience  we  will  consider  the  various  factors  in 
selling,  separately. 

The  House. 

We  will  admit  to  begin  with  that  we  are  not  here  “for 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


9 


our  health.”  We  are  in  trade  for  what  we  can  get  out 
of  it.  Of  course,  we  are  respectable  and  reputable.  We 
would  not  hit  a  man  over  the  head  and  take  his  money 
away  from  him  before  he  woke  up,  even  if  we  could.  We 
want  to  make  money,  however,  and  it  simply  comes  to  a 
question  of  selling  as  much  as  we  can  at  the  best  price 
we  can  get.  Competition  will  very  largely  dictate  our 
prices.  To  put  up  our  price  will  cut  down  our  sales,  so 
we  must  be  content  to  get  a  very  limited  margin  of  profit 
— unless  we  can  get  up  a  “combination.”  When  we  can 
“get  together”  with  our  competitors  and  agree  upon  a 
minimum  price,  we  usually  put  that  price  at  the  point 
once  described  by  a  railroad  official  as  “all  the  traffic  will 
stand.”  Having  done  this,  and  being  sure  that  no  one 
can  sell  at  a  figure  below  our  own,  it  behooves  us  to 
show  the  buyer  other  reasons  for  trading  with  us  than 
the  price  question.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  must  do  this 
anyway. 

A  good  many  people  are  willing  to  pay  a  trifle  more 
for  the  sake  of  buying  goods  where  they  like  to  buy.  The 
unpopular  house  must  offer  special  inducements — must 
sell  goods  a  great  deal  cheaper  than  the  popular  one.  The 
first  precept  will  always  be — “treat  your  customer  right.” 
Of  course  he  is  unreasonable — he  pays  for  the  privilege. 
Many  a  time  he  will  write  you  a  tart,  “sassy”  letter  which 
will  make  you  yearn  to  get  back  at  him  and  tell  him  just 
what  sort  of  an  animal  you  think  he  is.  Don’t  do  it.  It 
won’t  do  any  good.  Write  the  letter,  if  you  must.  It  will 
relieve  your  feelings.  Don’t  mail  it  at  once.  Leave  it 
over  until  next  day — and  then  tear  it  up.  If  his  com¬ 
plaint  is  just,  own  up  and  make  what  reparation  you  can. 
Very  likely  it  is  unjust.  In  this  case  you  can  very  prob- 


10 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


ably  write  him  a  nice  letter  which  will  make  him  ashamed 
of  himself.  Quite  often  he  will  tell  you  so.  Always  be 
conciliatory,  but  never  be  servile.  You  might  better  lose 
him  as  a  customer  than  to  let  him  get  the  idea  that  he  has 
only  to  make  a  claim  to  get  it  allowed.  He  would  become 
such  a  nuisance  that  he  would  bother  you  and  your  sales¬ 
men  beyond  endurance.  Besides  this,  such  a  customer 
demoralizes  both  your  trade  and  your  salesmen. 

Prompt  Riling  of  orders  goes  a  long  way  toward  making 
and  keeping  friends.  When  you  cannot  fill  your  orders 
promptly  you  should  tell  the  truth  about  it.  It  is  utterly 
useless  to  lie.  What  good  do  you  expect  to  accomplish 
by  telling  your  customer  that  you  will  have  a  certain  line 
on  the  first  when  you  know  very  well  that  you  cannot 
possibly  have  the  goods  until  the  fifteenth?  It  simply 
makes  it  necessary  to  lie  once  more  the  next  time  youf 
customer  writes  you  about  it. 

When  a  shipment  is  to  be  delayed,  always  write  or  tell 
your  customer  about  it.  Get  in  your  explanation  first. 
It  comes  with  much  better  grace  than  to  wait  until  the 
customer  kicks.  If  you  promised  a  shipment  on  the  first, 
and  could  not  ship  until  the  fifth,  you  should  have  sent  a 
prompt  advice  just  as  soon  as  you  found  that  you  were 
not  going  to  be  able  to  keep  your  word. 

Of  course,  you  expected  to  do  as  you  promised.  Of 
course,  you  thought  the  goods  would  be  along  “tomor¬ 
row.”  Presently  the  customer  writes  in  asking  about  the 
shipment.  You  or  your  correspondent  writes  a  very  nice 
letter  expressing  much  surprise  that  the  goods  were  not 
received.  “Didn’t  you  get  ’em?  We’ll  see  about  it  right 
away.”  When  you  do  this  you  are  putting  down  a  lying 
foundation  for  a  structure  of  lies.  Sooner  or  later  you’ll 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


11 


get  caught.  That  will  be  very  embarrassing.  Worse 
than  the  embarrassment  will  be  the  consequent  loss  of 
irade.  When  your  customer  once  “catches  you  at  it”  you 
can  never  again  get  his  entire  confidence. 

All  this  applies  just  the  same,  no  matter  what  line  of 
trade  you  are  in  or  how  large  your  establishment.  The 
jobber  should  use  the  same  rules  of  conduct  in  handling 
his  trade  as  the  man  who  keeps  a  little  corner  grocery. 

When  your  customer  gives  you  an  order  and  wants 
absolutely  impossible  conditions  as  to  delivery,  it  is  a 
great  deal  better  to  lose  that  particular  order  by  frankly 
admitting  that  you  cannot  meet  the  conditions  than  to 
make  promises.  When  you  “fall  down”  (as  you  surely 
will)  the  chances  are  that  you  lose  the  customer  alto¬ 
gether.  It  is  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to  train  your  clerks 
to  be  entirely  truthful,  but  it  can  be  done.  Don’t  let  any¬ 
one  tell  you  that  it  is  impossible,  for  that  is  not  true.  To 
use  your  customer  right  first,  last  and  all  the  time  is  one 
of  the  secrets  of  a  permanent  and  abiding  success.  Tell 
your  clerks  that  a  “square  deal”  goes,  and  let  them  see 
that  it  is  so  and  that  you  mean  it  by  giving  them  a  taste 
of  square  dealing.  This  does  not  mean  that  you  must 
raise  their  wages  every  fifteen  minutes,  or,  as  “Josiah 
Bounderby”  was  wont  to  say:  “Feed  them  turtle  soup 
and  venison  out  of  a  gold  spoon.”  It  simply  means  a 
little  consideration  on  your  part  for  their  unquestioned 
rights.  Do  it,  and  you  will  gain  an  asset  of  real  value. 
You  will  be  surprised  at  the  increase  in  value  in  a  really 
satisfied  and  contented  set  of  employes,  be  it  two  or  two 
thousand. 

Advertising. 

To  sell  goods  you  must  let  possible  purchasers  know 


12 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


that  you  have  the  goods  for  sale.  Any  way  of  letting 
this  fact  gain  publicity  is  advertising.  What  they  are 
pleased  to  call  the  “ethics  of  the  profession”  prevents  the 
doctor  and  the  lawyer  from  purchasing  advertising  out¬ 
right — but  they  advertise  just  the  same.  Church  mem¬ 
bership — lodge  membership — society — politics — philanthro¬ 
py.  All  these  are  used  to  great  advantage.  The  news 
columns  of  the  local  press  are  not  overlooked.  All 
these  are  more  or  less  legitimate.  Shall  we  let  the  “chil¬ 
dren  of  Belial  be  wiser  than  the  children  of  Light”? 
Any  way  you  can  think  of  to  get  your  name,  your  busi¬ 
ness  and  your  wares  before  a  possible  or  prospective  pur¬ 
chaser  is  worth  your  careful  consideration. 

Any  form  of  advertising  costs  money,  so  a  careful  con¬ 
sideration  of  ways  and  means  is  very  necessary.  It  is 
not  a  question  of  actual  cost — it  is  a  question  of  actual 
returns.  What  will  it  get  in  the  way  of  increased  busi¬ 
ness  and  increased  profit?  That  is  the  real  question. 
What  will  it  cost?  is  a  secondary  question.  Five  dollars 
spent  in  a  form  of  advertising  which  does  not  bring  re¬ 
turns  is  five  dollars  thrown  away.  Five  hundred  dollars 
spent  in  such  a  way  that  it  will  bring  back  five  hundred 
dollars  in  additional  profit  is  five  hundred  dollars  well 
invested.  All  advertising  has  an  actual  value  in  excess 
of  the  real  immediate  returns  in  dollars  and  cents.  Just 
how  much  this  is  worth  is  the  question  for  you  to  con¬ 
sider  seriously.  The  most  humble  enterprise  must  adver¬ 
tise  in  some  way.  The  sign, 

:  THIS  HOUS  : 

:  FORE  SAIL. 


is  advertising — of  a  sort.  What  might  be  termed  the 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


13 


“stone  age”  of  advertising  is  illustrated  in  the  cut,  which, 
by  the  way,  was  “taken  from  life” : 

The  “Stone  Age”  of  Advertising. 

Advertising  usually  means  printed  matter  in  some 
form.  Do  not  make  the  mistake  of  investing  your  good 
money  in  poor  or  cheap  appearing  printed  matter  of  any 
sort.  Your  printed  matter  represents  you.  Let  it  be  a 
fitting  representative.  The  poorest  economy  you  can 
practice  will  be  to  save  a  few  dollars  on  your  printed  mat¬ 
ter  by  letting  a  cheap  printer  put  it  upon  cheap  paper.  If 
it  is  a  possible  thing,  you  should  get  the  advice  of  some¬ 
one  who  really  understands  advertising.  Pay  for  the 
advice.  It  will  be  well  worth  the  outlay  in  increased  re¬ 
sults. 

The  Salesman. 

Dr.  Orison  Swett  Marden  in  a  recent  issue  of  Success 
says:  “There  will  be  no  chance  this  year  for: 

The  idler, 

The  leaner, 

The  coward. 

The  wobbler, 

The  ignorant. 

The  indifferent, 

The  unprepared, 

The  impractical  theorist, 

The  slipshod  and  the  careless, 

The  one  who  watches  the  clock. 

The  one  who  is  afraid  of  obstacles, 

The  one  who  has  no  iron  in  his  blood. 

The  one  who  is  always  running  to  catch  up, 

The  one  who  wants  to  pick  all  the  flowers  and  avoid  the 
thorns. 


14 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


Here  is  a  good  series  of  maxims  for  the  salesman.  He 
is  a  hard  worked  man.  The  more  successful  he  is  the 
harder  worked  he  is.  Hard  work  brings  success,  and  suc¬ 
cess  breeds  hard  work.  The  salesman  represents  some¬ 
one — himself  or  another.  Let  him  be  an  adequate  rep¬ 
resentative.  Good  appearance  counts  for  much.  This 
must  not  mean  that  the  man  must  try  to  rival  “Solomon 
in  all  his  glory.”  Slovenliness  is  very  bad.  Extremes  of 
style  are  worse.  Let  him  consider  his  customers  and 
dress  in  a  fitting  manner  at  all  times.  A  silk  hat  and  a 
gold-headed  cane  would  not  go  far  to  gain  and  keep  the 
confidence  and  respect  of  customers  to  whom  he  expects 
to  sell  stock  food  or  farm  fencing.  Neatness  is  impera¬ 
tive  at  all  times,  but  the  one  absolutely  indispensable  fac¬ 
tor  is  work — hard  work — constant  work — and  then  more 
work.  Hard  work  will  compensate  for  many  other  lacks. 
No  other  qualification  can  permanently  take  its  place. 
There  is  a  certain  sort  of  man  who  is  slangily  described 
as  “Johnny-on-the-Spot.”  He  is  the  one  who  gets  the 
plums.  He  is  the  one  who  gets  the  cream  and  leaves  the 
“skim  milk”  for  the  other  fellow.  The  hard  worker  is 
not  necessarily  a  plodder.  In  fact,  he  usually  is  not,  but 
it  does  not  take  him  two  days  to  do  a  day’s  work. 

The  man  “on  the  road”  and  the  one  “inside”  are  sub¬ 
ject  to  just  the  same  conditions.  How  many  salesmen 
and  saleswomen  have  you  seen  who  took  more  time  in 
making  up  their  minds  to  do  something  than  in  doing 
the  thing  itself?  This  means  wasted  time — “lost  motion” 
mechanics  call  it.  Don’t  waste  your  time.  Put  it  where 
it  will  do  some  good.  When  it  is  time  to  work — work. 
When  play-time  comes  it  is  time  enough  to  play,  but 
don’t  try  to  mix  them.  They  won’t  mix.  A  very  muddy 
result  is  produced  when  the  experiment  is  tried. 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


15 


When  you  have  a  thing  to  do,  do  it  at  once.  Don't  put 
it  oft*.  If  possible,  do  the  hardest  and  most  disagreeable 
thing  first.  It  comes  easier  that  way.  If  you  succeed  in 
vonr  hardest  proposition  you  can  look  forward  to  an 
easier  one  next  time.  If  you  fail — and  failure  will  come 
once  in  a  while — you  can  console  yourself  with  the  hope 
of  success  in  the  next  trial  because  it  is  easier. 

In  any  event,  always  do  the  most  important  thing  first. 
If  anything  must  be  neglected,  let  it  be  the  comparatively 
unimportant — but  try  to  manage  so  that  nothing  will  be 
neglected. 

Enthusiasm  is  another  very  valuable  asset.  Enthusiasm 
comes  from  a  thorough  belief  in  yourself  and  your  propo¬ 
sition — whatever  it  may  be.  Enthusiasm  is  more  con¬ 
tagious  than  smallpox.  To  inspire  your  customer  with 
your  own  confidence  in  your  proposition  is  half  the  battle. 
If  you  do  not  believe  in  your  own  proposition  get  out  of 
it.  Get  another.  To  try  to  sell  something  you  do  not 
believe  in  is  to  be  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  confidence 
man.  Imagine  yourself  trying  to  sell  life  insurance  while 
your  honest  belief  is  that  the  world  would  come  to  an 
end  within  six  weeks.  You  could  not  make  a  sale.  I  met 
a  man  not  long  ago  who  had  a  device  which  he  was  sell¬ 
ing  which  looked  to  me  like  a  “winner."  I  asked  him 
why  he  did  not  get  out  and  sell  it  in  large  quantities. 
“Why,"  said  he,  “Smith  makes  a  machine  which  does  the 
same  work  which  he  sells  for  five  dollars,  while  I  ask 
ten."  "Why  don't  you  sell  for  five?"  I  asked.  “Because," 
said  he,  “I  cannot  make  it  for  less  than  five,  and  his  is 
just  as  good  as  mine,  I  guess.  What  would  you  do?" 
“Get  out  of  business,"  said  I.  “You  have  neither  reason 
nor  excuse  for  asking  anyone  to  buy  of  you.  If  you  do, 


16 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


under  these  circumstances,  your  efforts  are  simply  to  ob¬ 
tain  charity.  It  is  a  case  of  'please  buy — I  need  the 
money/  You  are  not  reduced  to  asking  charity,  I  take 
it.”  He  quit — sold  his  good  will  to  the  other  fellow,  and 
is  now  successful  on  another  proposition. 

When  you  ask  a  customer  to  buy  your  goo^s  you  must 
have  in  your  own  mind  a  reason  or  a  series  of  reasons 
why  your  goods  should  be  bought  instead  of  others.  Tell 
your  reasons.  Tell  them  logically  and  clearly.  When 
you  have  completed  your  argument,  stop.  Many  a  sale 
has  been  spoiled  by  a  little  inopportune  talk  after  the 
argument  was  really  completed.  Just  when  to  stop  is 
one  of  the  things  you  must  learn — usually  from  expe¬ 
rience.  You  must  know,  and  know  thoroughly,  all  the 
weak  spots  in  your  own  proposition,  for  of  course  it  will 
have  some  weak  spots.  Nothing  is  perfect.  Know  these 
weak  spots  thoroughly,  but  keep  them  to  yourself.  Never 
suggest  them  simply  for  the  purpose  of  arguing  them 
away.  Your  customer  will  be  very  likely  to  point  them 
out.  When  he  does,  it  will  be  time  enough  to  argue  them 
away  or  to  point  out  advantages  which  more  than  offset 
them. 

When  your  customer  simply  will  not  buy,  you  can  usu¬ 
ally  get  a  reason.  Ask  him  for  it.  Very  possibly  you 
can  combat  it.  Even  if  you  cannot  do  so,  you  will  at 
least  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  why  you  could  not 
make  a  sale,  and  perhaps  it  will  help  you  make  a  sale 
elsewhere  at  some  other  time,  to  krtow  his  reasons. 

Always  remember  that  you  cannot  always  make  a  sale. 
You  cannot  do  all  the  business  there  is  to  be  done.  If 
you  could,  there  would  be  none  left  for  anyone  else.  Do 
not  let  discouragement  creep  in.  If  you  cannot  succeed 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


17 


tliis  time  make  up  your  mind  that  you  will  at  the  next 
trial,  and  then  simply  keep  on  trying.  When  you  cannot 
do  this  you  are  about  ready  to  get  out  of  business  alto¬ 
gether. 

One  thing  more.  Never  *ose  sight  of  the  fact  that  you 
are  working  for  the  man  who  pays  you  your  salary.  It 
is  easy  to  fall  into  the  error  of  looking  at  things  from 
the  customer’s  viewpoint,  but  you  must  not  do  it.  A  man 
“on  the  road,”  or  a  man  or  woman  behind  the  counter,  is 
naturally  the  buffer  between  the  “house”  and  the  cus¬ 
tomer.  Make  right  all  which  is  not  right,  but  do  not  as¬ 
sume  that  the  “house”  is  always  wrong.  Above  all,  don’t 
“wash  your  dirty  linen”  in  public.  Do  all  your  talking 
against  the  house  while  you  are  in  conversation  with  the 
management.  Outside  let  it  be,  “My  country — right  or 
wrong.” 

Selling  by  Mail. 

Selling  goods  by  mail  consists  of  getting  the  name  and 
address  of  possible  purchasers  and  then  talking  to  them 
on  paper  instead  of  in  person.  Names  and  addresses  are 
easily  gotten.  The  directory  is  full  of  them.  The  ques¬ 
tion  is  to  get  the  names  of  people  who  are,  or  at  least 
who  should  be,  interested  in  your  article.  That  is  a  more 
difficult  matter.  Advertising  in  newspapers  and  maga¬ 
zines  is  the  logical  way  to  do  this.  Circulars  have  been 
“worked  to  death.”  A  lot  of  circulars  sent  out  to  a  mis¬ 
cellaneous  list  of  names  will  be  found  to  produce  very 
meager  results.  The  average  person  with  money  to 
spend  throws  unsolicited  circulars  in  the  stove  or  the 
waste  basket.  This  is  not  guess-work  or  theory,  but  hard- 
bought  experience.  If  you  do  not  think  it  is  so,  try  it  for 
yourself.  You  will  find  that  it  is  so  unless  you  can  get 


18 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


a  list  of  names  of  people  who  are  directly  interested.  If 
you  can  do  this  you  may  be  able  to  approach  them  in  such 
a  way  as  to  gain  their  attention;  but  even  then  it  is  hard. 
Most  people  resent  having  a  thing  forced  upon  their  no¬ 
tice. 

Magazine  and  newspaper  advertising  do  not  seem  to 
force  themselves  upon  the  possible  purchaser.  When  a 
man  or  woman  answers  an  advertisement  he  or  she  does 
so  of  their  own  free  will,  and  thus  imply  at  least  a  pos¬ 
sible  interest  in  the  article  advertised.  A  response  to 
your  advertisement  gives  you  a  chance  to  assume  the  per¬ 
sonal  tone,  and  too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid  upon  this 
same  matter  of  the  personal  element.  Advertising  space 
costs  money — much  money.  As  a  consequence,  great  care 
must  be  taken  not  to  waste  it.  As  stated  before,  compe¬ 
tent  advice  should  be  secured  as  to  the  best  way  in  which 
to  advertise.  A  common  error  in  advertising  and  advertis¬ 
ing  literature  is  the  one  spoken  of  above — too  much  talk. 
In  an  advertisement  you  may  be  compelled  to  take  a  large 
space  in  order  to  attract  attention.  For  this  purpose  it 
is  sometimes  wise  to  take  much  more  space  than  you  can 
profitably  fill  with  “talk.”  To  be  of  use  an  “ad”  must  be 
read.  Put  too  much  in  it  and  no  one  will  read  it.  It 
thus  defeats  its  own  purpose.  Your  “ad”  must  tell  your 
story  to  the  public.  Tell  it,  then,  as  clearly,  pointedly  and 
concisely  as  possible.  It  must  be  attractive  and  catchy — 
that  goes  without  saying.  When  your  story  is  told,  stop. 
Do  not  fall  into  the  error  of  adding  more  words  just  be¬ 
cause  you  have  room  to  crowd  them  into.  It  is  a  fatal 
mistake. 

Having  secured  your  possible  purchaser,  your  task  is 
just  the  same  as  that  of  making  a  sale  under  any  ordi- 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


19 


nary  condition — only  you  must  put  your  arguments  on 
paper.  Present  your  arguments  fully  and  clearly,  but 
always  be  as  brief  as  possible.  Your  personality  might 
hold  your  possible  purchaser  if  you  were  face  to  face, 
but  no  such  advantage  is  yours  when  selling  by  mail. 

A  good  way  to  construct  your  letter  is  to  set  down  on 
paper  all  you  would  say  in  a  personal  interview.  Then 
“boil  it  down”  to  the  length  of  a  letter.  Facts  which 
apply  to  every  case  may  well  be  embodied  in  a  circular 
or  booklet  and  special  points  or  paragraphs  may  be  re¬ 
ferred  to  in  your  letters,  bor  instance:  We  will  sup¬ 
pose  that  your  product  is  a  washing  machine.  That  will 
do  for  an  illustration  as  well  as  anything  else. 

Your  circular  or  booklet  will  tell  all  about  the  device. 
It  should  leave  little  to  be  said  as  a  matter  of  fact.  The 
trouble  will  be  that  the  reader  will  skip  through  it  cas¬ 
ually  as  a  general  thing.  No  particular  force  will  be 
felt.  Your  letter  must  supply  the  emphasis.  In  your  let¬ 
ter  you  can  refer  briefly  to  the  various  points  of  advan¬ 
tage  and  superiority*  making  the  references  terse  enough 
to  be  read  carefully  and  interesting  enough  to  insure  a 
reference  to  the  special  paragraphs  or  pages  mentioned. 

By  following  this  plan  you  can  write  your  letters  in  a 
sort  of  series,  and  thus  get  more  than  one  chance  to 
argue  with  your  possible  purchaser.  In  writing  letters 
of  this  sort  your  own  enthusiasm  and  conviction  will  be 
just  as  great  a  factor  in  success  as  in  a  face-to-face  argu¬ 
ment. 

Remember  what  has  been  said  about  your  printed  mat¬ 
ter.  Issue  good  printed  matter  or  none  at  all.  Remem¬ 
ber  that  all  your  possible  purchaser  will  know  of  you  is 
to  be  gathered  from  an  inspection  of  your  printed  matter 


20 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


and  letters.  Let  the  impression  be  a  good  one.  It  may 
very  well  mean  the  difference  between  a  sale  and  no  sale. 
You  cannot  afford  to  run  the  risk. 

Some  of  the  things  said  here  you  have  undoubtedly 
heard  before.  We  do  not  intend  to  lay  claim  to  any  sort 
of  a  monopoly  of  ideas,  or  even  to  claim  that  these  were 
all  evolved  from  our  inner  consciousness.  They  are  sim¬ 
ply  a  few  deductions  drawn  from  experience — nothing 
more. 

The  Argumentative  Clerk. 

There  is  no  man  that  I  cordially  dislike  more  than  the 
argumentative  clerk,  he  who  always  knows  better  than 
you  what  you  want,  who  understands  merchandise  much 
better  than  you  and  insists  on  reminding  you  of  that  fact. 

I  watched  one  the  other  day.  “My  dear  man,”  he  was 
saying  to  a  customer  that  did  not  think  a  pair  of  gloves 
fitted  him;  “I  know  more  about  gloves  than  you  do.” 

One  of  the  largest  shoe  concerns  in  this  country  is 
hurting  its  own  trade  considerably  by  the  policy  of  always 
selling  a  pair  of  shoes  whether  they  fit  or  not,  whether 
they  are  the  style  wanted  or  something  very  different. 
Their  clerks  are  instructed  from  headquarters  to  make  a 
sale  at  all  costs,  to  persuade  and  argue  with  customers 
until  they  get  the  cash.  They  dissatisfy  a  great  many 
that  they  succeed  in  selling  to,  and  offend  a  great  many 
who  refuse  to  be  deceived. 

The  clerk  and  the  customer  do  not  stand  on  equal 
terms.  The  clerk  is  in  his  place  to  please  the  customer, 
to  serve  him  properly  and  to  have  respect  for  his  views 
and  even  his  whims — to  make  purchasing  a  distinct  pleas¬ 
ure  rather  than  a  disagreeable  task. 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


21 


The  Windy  Humbug  of  the  Sales  Force. 

The  following  taken  from  an  exchange  is  so  true  of  a 
type  of  salesman  with  whom  many  houses  are  inflicted, 
and  by  whom  many  managers  are  fooled,  that  it  deserves 
careful  reading  by  managers  everywhere. 

“The  windy,  half-truth  teller  is  another  disreputable  mem¬ 
ber  of  his  profession.  The  probability  is  that  he  really  thinks 
himself  a  wonderful  salesman,  most  likely  refers  to  himself 
as  a  cracker-jack,  a  world-beater,  with  years  of  experience, 
and  he  does  put  up  a  bold  front  and  he  makes  a  good  appear¬ 
ance.  To  hear  and  believe  his  talk  one  would  think  he  was 
the  most  wonderful  sales-artist  who  ever  came  up  the  pike : 
he  is  full  of  his  past  great  achievements  and  performances. 
But  if  you  analyze  him  and  his  deeds  you  discover  under  the 
guise  of  an  expert,  a  rank  four-flusher.  He  has  always,  ac¬ 
cording  to  his  own  story,  never  received  less  than  $5,000  a 
year  and  every  concern  between  both  oceans  v/ants  him  now 
— he  is  receiving  the  most  flattering  offers  by  every  mail,  and 
it  is  the  most  difficult  task  in  the  world  for  him  to  avoid 
taking  a  situation  at  $8,000  or  $10,000  with  unlimited  expense 
accounts  thrown  in. 

“The  subscription  book  selling  field  offers  the  best  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  this  class,  and  they  cast  much  undeserved  discredit 
upon  the  gentlemen  in  that  line,  who  to'  be  permanently  suc¬ 
cessful,  must  have  sterling  character  in  their  make-ups.  Mr. 
Fourflush  has  a  certain  ability,  he  is  able  to  assume  a  virtue 
if  he  has  it  not,  and  if  he  had  a  foundation  of  character,  would, 
in  spite  of  his  other  disqualifications,  answer  the  purpose.  He 
sees  people  once  or  twice,  rarely  as  many  as  three  times,  and 
he  leaves  many  of  his  people  with  the  impression  that  he  has 
merit,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  acquaintance  had  not 
endured  long  enough  to  expose  the  four-flush.  This  humbug 
has  his  counterpart  in  medicine,  law  and  in  the  ministry,  and 
ordinary  business  callings.  As  a  salesman  he  is  full  of  theories 
of  salesmanship,  but  they  never  bear  fruit.  The  house  that 
employs  him  at  a  salary  of  $900  to  $1,200  instead  of  the  $5,000 
he  talks  so  glibly  about,  will  find  that  although  he  makes  two 
or  three  good  plays,  his  year's  work  has  little  profit  for  the 


22 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


house,  and  that  he  would  be  less  and  less  useful  over  the 
same  territory,  for  the  better  he  is  known  the  worse  for  his 
employer.  His  ability  is  all  on  the  surface  and  consists  prin¬ 
cipally  of  what  he  learns  from  others,  for  he  will  generally  be 
found  to  have  the  ability  to  adapt  a  portion  of  the  ideas  of 
others  to  complete  his  own  front;  there  is  nothing  back  of  the 
front  but  arrant  egotism  and  insufferable  vanity,  and  these 
are  likely  to  be  mingled  with  even  worse  qualities.  He  soon 
receives  and  deserves  the  contempt  of  his  acquaintances,  and 
his  four-flush  is  surely  called  in  time.  Only  those  who  do  not 
know  him  well  labor  under  the  mistaken  impression  that  he 
is  an  expert  salesman. 

“His  manner  of  work  is  by  partial  truths,  detached  from 
their  actual  associations  and  made  to  do  duty  in  misrepre¬ 
sentation  by  which  he  hopes  to  close  the  sale.  If  he  is  called 
to  account,  there  is  the  fragment  of  truth  for  him  to  hold  up, 
and  he  has  some  skill  in  side-stepping,  and  trusts  to  this  to 
avoid  being  cornered.  His  object  is  to  get  a  signed  order, 
not  to  make  a  legitimate  sale  on  business  principles.  He  is 
everlastingly  butting  in  to  the  sales  manager  with  schemes 
which  he  figures  out  beautifully  on  paper.  He  is  a  great  chap 
to  talk  about  hustling  and  action,  and  he  is  frantic  to  have  a 
lot  of  expense  incurred  for  printing  and  other  things,  but  the 
schemes  never  work  out,  and  the  sales  manager  has  had  his 
experience. 

“Strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  humbug  is  rarely  discharged. 
His  nature  leads  him  to  try  something  else,  and  he  often  con¬ 
trives  to  get  a  good  letter  from  his  manager,  for  the  reason 
that  the  latter  is  so  pleased  with  the  outcome  that  he  will  do 
almost  anything.  It  is  the  same  way  at  the  next  place,  and 
so  on  until  the  end  of  the  chapter.  While  he  is  drawing  money 
from  one  employer  he  is  willfully  spending  his  time  negotiat¬ 
ing  with  the  next.” 

Protecting  Home  Trade. 

There  are  various  reasons  why  people  go  away  from  the 
home  town  to  trade.  Let  us  look  at  some  of  them: 

They  wish  a  change. 

They  think  ihey  can  buy  more  cheaply. 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


23 


They  think  they  will  find  a  greater  assortment  of  goods. 

There  are  ways  to  combat  each  and  all  of  these  ideas. 
The  first  way  is  to  make  them  wrong  ideas.  Sell  at  reason¬ 
able  prices.  Keep  up  a  good  assortment  of  stock.  Keep  your 
places  in  such  shape  that  your  customers  will  not  want  a 
change. 

The  disease  afflicting  the  stores  in  many  small  towns  seems 
to  be  “dry  rot.”  There  is  no  reason  why  a  store  in  a  town  of 
five  thousand  inhabitants  should  not  be  as  attractive,  neat  and 
up-to-date  as  a  store  of  the  same  size  in  the  city  of  five  hun¬ 
dred  thousand.  Small  stores  are  plentiful  in  large  cities.  This 
proves  conclusively  that  they  can  make  money  there — else 
they  would  not  exist. 

It  is  easily  seen  that  the  expenses  of  a  small  store  are 
larger  in  the  big  city  than  in  a  small  town.  Rent  is  high, 
cost  of  delivery  is  great,  living  expenses  and  incidentals  are 
much  increased.  It  follows,  then,  that  the  same  amount  of 
gross  profit  will  leave  a  much  greater  margin  of  net  income 
to  the  merchant  in  the  town  than  to  the  man  in  the  big  city. 
This  is  cited  merely  to  show  that  the  man  in  the  small  town 
can  just  as  well  afford  to  modernize  his  establishment  as  can 
the  city  man.  Because  he  has  not  done  so  is  one  reason  why 
his  trade  goes  to  the  larger  place.  It  may  not  be  true  that 
the  city  store  is  a  better  place  to  trade,  but  it  looks  so  and 
the  customer,  therefore,  thinks  it  is  so. 

A  full  and  complete  explanation  of  the  reason  why  your 
town  trade  goes  to  the  city  can  be  seen  clearly  when  you  go 
to  the  city  yourself  and  look  at  your  city  competitor’s  store. 
Can  you  meet  his  prices?  Do  so.  Do  your  customers  know 
you  can  meet  his  prices?  Let  them  know  it.  Tell  them  about 
it.  Do  as  he  does.  Use  the  same  means  that  he  uses — Ad¬ 
vertise.  Two  to  one  none  of  you  give  proper  weight  to  the 
value  of  local  advertising,  or  proper  support  to  your  local 
paper  or  papers.  Do  your  customers  read  the  local  paper? 
Let  them  see  your  “ad”  there  and  in  the  ad,  tell  them  some¬ 
thing. 

Does  your  city  competitor  attract  trade  with  an  occasional 
offering  of  novelties  at  low  prices?  Do  you  the  same.  That’s 
one  of  the  things  your  customer  goes  to  your  competitor  after. 


24 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


It’s  your  own  fault.  Give  your  customers  what  they  want 
and  find  out  what  they  want  before  they  find  it  out  themselves. 
That  way  lies  success.  You  should  wake  up.  You  evidently 
are  in  the  habit  of  standing  behind  your  showcase  and  hand¬ 
ing  out  to  your  trade  just  what  they  call  for.  That’s  all  right, 
so  far  as  it  goes,  but  the  same  sort  of  service  is  rendered  by 
a  slot  machine. 

What  you  want  to  do  is  to  change  their  minds  for  them. 
They  like  it.  It’s  what  they  go  to  the  city  for.  Your  asso¬ 
ciation  is  all  right.  It  has  a  broad  field  of  usefulness.  But 
it  cannot  work  out  the  salvation  of  your  individual  members. 
The  man  who  cannot  wake  up  will  pass  gently  from  sleep  to 
oblivion  and  you  will  have  to  let  him  pass. 

In  conclusion :  Buy  often,  but  not  too  much  at  a  time. 
Buy  your  own  goods.  Go  to  the  trading  centers  at  least  three 
times  a  year  to  do  it.  When  you  do  this  you  get  goods  at 
reasonable  prices  and  you  get  ideas  for  nothing.  Last  of  all — 
stay  awake. 

Close  Buying  and  Close  Selling. 

A  hardware  manufacturer,  writing  in  a  recent  issue 
of  The  Iron  Age ,  makes  some  rather  caustic  and 
pithy  comments  on  the  average  hardware  deal¬ 
er’s  style  of  buying  goods.  In  part  he  has  this  to  say:  “I 
know,  from  15  years’  experience  selling  the  retail  hardware 
dealers,  that  not  one  in  twenty  is  a  good  all-round  buyer. 
The  majority  are  mighty  poor  advertisers;  do  not  keep 
their  stores  attractive  or  up-to-date;  many  with  dirty 
windows  and  mixed  up  stock;  do  not  know  the  merits  of 
their  wares,  and  if  a  catalog  house  customer  comes  into 
their  store,  throw  rocks  at  him,  until  he  gets  his  neighbors 
to  club  with  him  and  send  away  for  goods.” 

The  present  writer  confesses  to  a  certain  lack  of  sym¬ 
pathy  for  the  retailer  who  complains  about  catalog  house 
competition.  The  retailer  who  says  he  cannot  meet  the 
prices  of  the  catalog  house  shows  that  he  is  a  poor  buyer, 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


25 


and  what  is  more,  a  worse  seller.  The  average  retailer 
gets  in  the  habit  of  dealing  with  one  house,  because  that 
house  will  carry  him  on  long  credits,  with  the  natural  con¬ 
sequence  that  the  jobber  charges  a  proportionate  increase 
of  profits  to  insure  the  extraordinary  risk  in  the  credit 
line;  and  the  retailer,  in  order  to  make  even  a  living,  has 
to  charge  an  additional  profit  over  this  cost,  and  therefore 
he  is  placed  entirely  out  of  the  possibility  of  competing 
with  the  catalog  house,  which  in  the  majority  of  cases 
buys  for  cash,  or  at  least  discounts  its  bills — buys  close, 
sells  quickly,  for  cash,  and  obtains  a  turn-over  many  times 
quicker  than  the  retailer.  It  seems  to  the  writer,  there¬ 
fore,  that  one  of  the  great  difficulties  with  the  retailer  in 
meeting  catalog  competition,  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  is 
endeavoring  to  make  trade  follow  him,  instead  of  follow¬ 
ing  the  trade. 

Keep  Stock  Moving. 

We  believe  as  a  matter  of  convenience  that  our 
merchant  has  placed  on  his  desk  every  day  a  state¬ 
ment  of  the  day’s  sales.  He  is  very  much  pleased  to 
note  that  the  amount  of  sales  increase  each  day.  At 
the  end  of  six  months  or  a  year,  if  he  be  the  ordinary 
manager,  when  his  inventory  period  comes  he  is  absolutely 
dumbfounded  to  find  that  he  has  some  stock  on  hand  this 
year  that  he  had  last  year,  and  he  cannot  account  for  it. 
The  whole  trouble  has  been  that  he  did  not  keep  his  stock 
moving.  Last  year  some  slick  salesman  got  him  to  take  a 
manicure  set  that  cost  him  $6  or  $7.  It  was  displayed 
through  the  Christmas  season,  but  nobody  seems  to  care 
for  it.  The  department  had  priced  it  down  to  cost,  and 
still  nobody  took  it,  and  with  a  sigh  he  put  it  away  under 
the  counter  or  in  the  stock  room  to  bring  it  out  again  this 
Christmas.  The  inventory  shows  that  the  beautiful  giddy 


26 


BUSINESS  GETTING. 


petticoat  creation  that  cost  $11  nobody  wanted  at  $5,  be¬ 
cause  they  belong  to  the  vintage  of  36  months  ago.  The 
first  requisite  for  free  cure  for  this  state  of  affairs  is  to 
have  perpetual  inventory  that  will  give  the  size  of  the 
stock  each  month.  Keep  the  stock  in  sight,  for  when  you 
have  it  before  your  eyes  constantly  you  will  not  be  tempted 
to  forget  it  and  don’t  be  induced  to  buy  luxuries  that  you 
know  your  people  have  not  money  to  purchase. 


HERE  are  short  cuts  in  figures,  calculations,  ac¬ 
counting,  advertising,  correspondence,  book¬ 
keeping,  filing,  credits,  collections,  selling  meth¬ 
ods,  and  more— all  of  them  new  and  all  of  them  good. 
These  methods  are  practical  in  daily  use  by  experts 
who  charge  $25  to  $100  a  day  for  their  services. 


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A  series  of  twelve  trial  balances  is  given,  ten  of  which  are  models, 
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